There's been talk in Washington for months of the July 2011 deadline, when President Barack Obama promised to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. He didn't say how many or how quickly.

But there is a less talked about date on the horizon that may be more important: October 31, 2011.

That's when the United Nations says there should be 305,000 members of the Afghanistan national security forces trained and assigned. There are currently about 249,000 Afghan forces, but getting that number to 305,000 isn't as simple as recruiting and training one Afghan to fill each empty slot. It's closer to three Afghans for each position.

"Just to grow that 56,000, we're going to have to recruit and train and assign 141,000 police and soldiers," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell said during a satellite briefing from Afghanistan on Monday.

The problem is attrition, the loss of troops and police from deaths, resignation or desertion. Caldwell said, adding, "They pose the greatest threat to both quantity and quality of the Afghan national security force."

So where do the deserters go? Possibly off to outfits that pay better. "The president of Afghanistan has stated that he thinks that a lot of them are being hired off by private security companies," said Caldwell, and he believes President Hamid Karzai may be correct.

"You take a young soldier who's gone through 17 weeks of intense military training to become a soldier in the Afghan army. He's developed some skill sets. He's received some literacy training. He's a far better person after 17 weeks than the day he entered," Caldwell said.

To help stop deserters from taking their training onto the private market, Caldwell says all insiders at private security firms are now going through fingerprinting and retina scans - the same as security force recruits get - so deserters will be easier to catch.

Caldwell said that training enough security forces to meet that October 31, 2011, goal will be difficult, but he believes the coalition finally has the resources to get the job done.

"The secretary of defense of the United States just last month, in July, gave us an additional battalion of soldiers, that was about another 650 soldiers, to assist us in this training mission," Caldwell said, also noting that NATO has promised even more trainers. "Our projection is that by October 2011 we can make those growth objectives,' Caldwell said.

soundoff(100 Responses)

JC

The problem with training the Afghan Army isn't about skill sets, it's about ideology. In Afghanistan, beneath God, the individual MALE tends to believe he is everything; there is no loyalty to a higher purpose, and for the less religiously motivated, there is only tribal loyalty. In the cities, there isn't even that. Nothing has changed since the middle ages. No conqueror has ever been able to hold the whole place, and not even a little piece of it unless he was prepared to be brutal. Could we win this war? Certainly. We could unleash hell on earth in a far more systematic way than the Russians ever did. Would it do any good? Probably not. The way I see it, our only mission in Afghanistan was to locate Bin Laden, and to destroy anyone that got in the way. This was made impossibly harder by that ass George Bush Jr. and his Iraqi distraction. It should not be our purpose at this time to rebuild Afghanistan, to train Afghanistan, or to do anything with Afghanistan other than find Bin Laden. That still needs to be done, and our current president has failed as badly at that task as his predecessor.

hey guys what about the people fighting right now in the battle field?? It is still going on while you and me are seated here typing. If they also sit like us what will happen to us from the living human bombs. I LIVED WITH THE war in Sri lanka and have seen how terrible it is in day today life. when leave house in the morning for our work we never know we return home or not. The suicide bomber can be in any bus or any train or station. No one will support that kind of attacks if you have lived with terrorists attacks on your door steps. TERRORISM IS NOT a solution to any problem.

you all spend your time trying to justify right and wrong.... guess what... we all are going to die one day and all of this will mean nothing... I guess the human race is doomed because no one could figure out how to get along.... Taliban, Christian, African, hell it doesn't matter.... death comes to us all the same.... All I am trying to say is, why try to make a point when you know you will get nothing for it in the end... how about we lay the foundation for our children and thier children and so on? Wait... that would be smart.... I am going to just continue to do nothing and leave lame posts....

Mohammed was a false prophet, liar and thief... he created a religion from an already existent one and manipulated it to benefit himself and enslave those not like him. He was a cheat and had no value for human life as he felt that he was the man of god and almost viewed himself as one and not a prophet... how is it that all other prophets pictures can be displayed but his? Because he is a shame to the world for the things that he did...

from accusing each other and judging we all are making our way to hell. God does not . But we our selves. All of us are human beings with faults. Limited time left before the end of this world. why not reconcile and have fellow ship and help each other rather than killing . Guns and suicide bombs wont make a country. But the people if they are allowed to live with freedom.

it is limited time before end of the world. little time left for fellow ship and reconcile. we are just human beings and dust. No body is superior to any one. why fighting rather than helping for less fortunate? Hope Taliban Army too can understand these attacks are not helping their country men or any other in the world. We all have our faults. It is time to repent before the world ends.

Training 3 afghans to get one soldiers is not the whole story. Rather it may be a very minor part of the story. What america fails to understand is to learn to think of life from the afghans point of view. Afghan is a tribal society, with no real education and basic necessities of life. People live barbaric lives and have a hard time obtaining the basic necessities of life in a normal way. Besides there are other problems like culture, a code of ethics that is totally barbaric from (westerners view point) our way of life. With this being the foundation, it is very difficult to get afghans to be loyal and love their country. Most islamic societies are like animals. Yes, even cats and dogs take care of their young ones. But life goes alot more beyond that. These barbaric societies do not respect life, liberty and persuit of happiness. For them life is all about eating, sleeping and talking. They have no exposure, with the result they are close to the animal kingdom and follow barbaric ways. What america has to understand is to give afghans an infra structure where they can lead normal lives. Live, eat and do thier thing with out being disturbed. That will win over the hearts and minds of the people and that will want to make them love their families and country. As of now, they are up for ransom to the higgest bidders. Pakistan, Iran, Russia, USA and others. Afghans have to be given a sense of pride in their culture. Given education, and afforded a chance to have a normal life. That is when america will find men, willing to be soldiers and prepared to die for their country. Otherwise may be if america trains a thousand, they may never find a single real soldier. These muslims have lived their lives like animals for donkey years, and have been brainwashed by their tribal leaders/elders. So do not expect them to change allegience overnight. Besides change has to come from inside and not forced from outside. Thoughts about getting one in three is, at this point of time, a hallucination for americans. Stop dreaming and wake up to the realities america.

@risab you are a fool, America is not invading Afghanistan. Russia wanted to occupy and control it. America wants it to be stable and not a terrorist training camp. Perhaps America should pull out entirely and say the next terrorist attack that originates in Afghanistan we will bomb you back to the stone age....oops too late. Maybe then the citizens would stand up against the terrorist that occupy their country.

So much for the so-called fierce national pride of the Afghan people. Maybe they need to reindoctrinate their people with what could possibly happen to deserters – you lose all of your rights and your head when caught. Might be the right gimmick to get their attention.

If you go back a hundred years to the british empire and read their papers. It would read very much like this. This is a feel good stunt on our part to help hide from our eyes that we live in a world ruled by the dollar empire backed up by a coalition led by Western powers. We are an empire. We can accept it and do what we need to act properly within that role or we can fret and waste away. After we accept the fact that we are an empire; we have two choices. One is to become a republic again and respect the natural rights of other populations or we can sharpen our blades and become really effective in order to spin our way out of the messes we are in as a society. A credit/mission oriented republic is the best direction.

Training three soldiers to get one does not say much for the quality of the average Afghan man. Sooner or later they are going to have to take responsibility for running their country. If they screw it up again and let the Taliban take over we should hold the entire countryfully responsible for anything that occurs or originates on Afghan soil.

Come on now, war is big business. Go and google any military installation to see how many civilian and military contractors there are per installation and you'll get a list that weighs 10 pounds. The U.S. economy depends on wartime activity to stay financially active since so many jobs depend on an active war zone, not including u.s. military forces. It doesn't matter who the victim is at the time, be it afghanistan *2nd largest copper mine in the world anyone?*, or iraq*oil duh*. Fact is for the u.s. there will always be *some* conflict we're engaging in, basically to keep our booming nation from supposedly going bankrupt. War is good business. Personally i think we should just all pull out and let them all sort it out themselves.

Come now, everyone should know that war is big business. The War Economy is a needed event by the u.s. just to support all the big businesses. Honestly just pull up a sheet to see how many different civilian and military contractors there are for any given military base and you'll get a list that weighs ten pounds. War is good business, and apparently a needed event to keep many americans in a paycheck. The victim at the time is going to be a victim of opportunity. *Afghanistan*, copper mines anyone?

The war in Afg is a civil war, in many aspects, the only ones that can win or loose it are the Afg people. The Afg people need to take ownership of their future- unfortunately most are struggling with yesteray's meal, and any information that they get from their local religeous leader, usually an islamist that opposes any type of freedoms, because such would educate the people, and none would listen to his narrow views of the world he does not know. So the Afg gvmt needs also to educate and train the religeous leaders, so that they can see a future, for themselves, in a quasi democratic afghanistan... ..

Taliban and Al Qaeada are mainly Pashtuns, Arabs and Pakistanies, They do not have any simpathy and love to their countries and people, all of them are those people who secaped from their countries, all of them are smagglers and mafias. The are killing inocent people, they commit suicide bober attack like animals, they are not human they are animals they must be put in to some jungles, where they can live there to gather and kill each other, fake Pakistan and Karzai are supporting Taliban, and now usa supporting Taliban in the way of supporting those people who faced risk in last flooding in Pakistan, you usa people should not let the usa to support Taliban and Pakistan.

Maybe the Taliban gave Pakistan for the flood because that way they can show that they aren't as bad as the Pakistan Government??? That doesn't make it so that They aren't tarriest!!! But because Pakistan took the money does it mean They are Tarriest??? I think not!!! If Your Enemy offer you money for nothing because you needed would You say no???

I wonder sometimes .about. the courage of Afghan People after what they gone through for many years. May Lord give strength to national Army and May lord bless the trainers from US and NATO for their dedicated service!!!!

GWB was a better president than all the democrat presidents combined. I'm sure if Algore was president on 9/11, he would have talked and talked and done nothing to capture bin Laden, just like Clinton.

Yakoba: The Jews don't believe in Jesus Christ and so does a lot of other Religions!!! So what does it prove if the Muslin don't believe in Him either??? Does every Religion have to agree with Yours to be a good religion???

Yakoba: The last thing I ever heard we was not at war against them!!! So why are You picking on Them??? All Countries do not think the United States isn't doing the proper thing!!! They have the right to their Views without us making a Big deal about it... There are a lot of things I feel other Countries are doing wrong!!! But that is My opinion and has nothing to do with how They run the Country!!!

This is worse than what I ran into in Vietnam with the worst of the ARVN units. As bad as they were, they were much better than the Afghan's. Who really believes the Afghan Army & police will be an effective fighting force? When we leave like Vietnam, a number of good members of the military will die for essentially nothing. The country will revert to a tribal world in an incredibly backwards civilization not significantly different from Alexander the Great crossed from Persia to India.

The Vietnamese hated us because of our politics. The Afghans hate us because we are infidels, and because we kill their women and children with our drones and our clandestine death squads. Which do you think is worse?

Our leaders can't be this stupid. I wonder what our real objective is over there?

When the Sun shines upon Earth, 2 – major Time points are created on opposite sides of Earth – known as Midday and Midnight. Where the 2 major Time forces join, synergy creates 2 new minor Time points we recognize as Sunup and Sundown.

The 4-equidistant Time points can be considered as Time Square imprinted upon the circle of Earth. In a single rotation of the Earth sphere, each Time corner point rotates through the other 3-corner Time points, thus creating 16 corners, 96 hours and 4-simultaneous 24 hour Days within a single rotation of Earth – equated to a Higher Order of Life Time Cube

Where are the other 2 guys going? Are most of them having their training bought and paid for by the U.S. taxpayers so that they can turn around and join the Taliban? At best, what this article is saying is that we're training one of our and (at least) one of theirs at the same time. Sounds like a great plan for endless warfare.

The British couldn't control Afghanistan, the Russians couldn't control Afghanistan, and now we are bleeding into the high bleak desert. Of Afghanistan. A foreign occupier cannot control an occupied nation. The occupier will perish one by one at the hands of an acitive guerilla force which we are training in our methods and weaponry. Where do you think the deserters go? They go to the guerilla forces. Now that we have discovered unlimited lithium supplies waiting to be mined in Afghanistan, we will obey the market economy and feed soldiers to the Energizer Bunny and his friends. How terribly sad.

There is nothing to gain from capitalism if you already get everything you want from God. Cleanliness does not matter. A house and a car do not matter. An occupation does not matter. We need to show them that our economic goals are in line with their religious goals. Then we can stop training deserters and start training business managers.

Will has a good idea....I would place bounty on the head of all deserters...Let the Afghans police their own through greed. That seems to be the common thread here, that they all go after money. Offer something like 3 or 4 times monthly wages for each deserter they bring in (not info, offer it as bounty!) That makes it very expensive to leave the military once you commit!!

Here's a novel concept: PAY THEM MORE! Match the wage to prevent desertion and teach them about capitalism and how those who apply themselves WIN and are WINNERS! We are teaching them the same crap we use in our military...keep the junior enlisted people just above the poverty line! I'm an ex-officer and am now in the business world, but my guys had to deal with this and I had to indirectly as their leader. The inadequate pay for top notch work rationalization of the military is unfathomable!!!!

Bob- That would be a great idea but there's a reason why soldier's don't get paid as much as civilians: their over all cost is more expensive. The get clothed, fed, housed and medical care, all that costs money where as private security can pay more because they don't have to worry about the incidentals.

It's pretty clear that these men don't want to fight for President Karzai or President Obama. They are not convinced in their heart and mind that they are fighting for a better Afghanistan. They are there just to get paid or to be able to survive. It's sad that we still have not learned lessons.

I wonder how many of them are taking the training just to avoid starvation for themselves or their family? It's hard for Americans to imagine how desperately poor these people are, and how utterly worthless their government is.

Only 3 to 1? I would have expected it to be higher. Cedar Rapids is pretty much spot on with his comment about tribal fighters and no one in charge. I've spent over 10 years teaching Egyptians and other Arabs military tech and I've learned that once they have been given a bit of knowledge, off they go to the highest bidder for their services. But what is scarier are those that come for the training and leave for no reason and fall off the radar...where do those trained personnel go? I do not hold much faith that the American Gov. will be able to accomplish much in Afghanistan other than re-arming them with weapons and technology to be used against the next occupying force in that country.

'It's your fault that the Taliban even exists in the first place.'
Yeah, not too sure you can claim that. The force that became the Taliban took over the power vacuum that existed after they managed to drive the Russians out with the US help. Once they did that the US basically walked away and said 'there you go, all yours.'
You suddenly had a load of tribal fighters with more modern weapons and no one in charge, and that is a recipe for disaster.

These deserters are wrong, but must be given some compassion. It's very hard for people to behave responsively, either in this sense or to refrain from growing opium, when they're so poor they can't feed and clothe their children properly.

It was actually from 1980 when the Russians invaded Afghanistan. The CIA produced books filled with hate against the infidels and distributed then in the Madrassahs. This was the one most significant blunder made by the CIA. At that time the infidels were the Russians. Later it was the Americans. You reap what you sow.

What were we supposed to do. Stay and rebuild their country? Re-establish their government? "Untrain" their fighters? Take away their weapons?

We helped them expel an invading army. It was not our responsibility to then fix every one of their problems. That country has been at war or civil war for over 100 years.

We gave them the ability to defend themselves and they used it to then kill each other and eventually train and harbor terrorists for global terrorist acts. Now we are back to quell their stupid and violent ways.

This is their nature. This is what they've done to each other for hundreds of years. If you people can't grasp that simple concept, then you have no business even discussing the issues. You guys just want to blame the U.S. for everything.

Well here's some food for thought....

We didn't invent Islam. We didn't invent Sharia Law. We didn't teach these people to be violent.

Take a look at every majority Muslim country on this planet and tell me what the common denominator is.

It is totaly the fault of the U.S primarily Jimmy Carter. our CIA trained, supplied and funded the smaller afghan millitarys who were already aginst a governing society. We trained them how to blow up things and with that being said, we brought 9/11 upon ourselves. We created the monsters then that our soldiers fight today. We are also following the same pattern used by the U.S during the soviet war to fight the current war. the war in afghanistan was oncidered over in 2003 It was Obama who re-opend the war and deployed so many troops. Now he has our soliders training the ANA again, the same as we screwed our selves in 1980's. We are also giving them weponsand funding AGAIN! It is also known that 30% of the ANA are affiliated or part of the taliban. SO WHY IN THE WORLD ARE WE HELPING? If we r merly training 30% more of the bad guys thats 30% who can go back to their terrist group and teach them the U.S way to fight and have access to U.S army uniforms, a tackic used this past week totry and gain access to US base in Jalalabad. So that explains why the 4th poorest country and second most illiturat and uneducated country, has terrist groups gaining skills to fight the US. I do wish it were possible to help stop the abuse on afghan women, but this "War" could have been stopped before it started. Now Obama has made things worse by telling the world of a pull-out date July 2011, making it sound like the U.S is trying to abandon Afghanistan again, hence, the reason casualties have shot throgh the roof in the past 3 months.

Nobody in the West has a true understanding of Afghanistan and its people. War is a part of life. They will fight for a 100 years if needed. The question is: is the West prepared to fight for a 100 years?

So we help the Afghans fight off the invading Russians and IT'S OUR FAULT that the Taliban exists?

You people are incredibly stupid. We didn't start that war. We didn't invade the country. WE HELPED THEM FIGHT OFF AN INVADING FORCE by giving them training and weapons.

It's not our fault that you idiots then fought each other for power and let the most brutal group take control. It was hardly our responsibility to then rebuild your country afterward as well. Take some fricking responsibility for yourselves.

you are so stupid, moron etc.
we did not helped them counter attack the invaders.. no, what we did was use them to weaken the strenght and power of comunism and russia sphere of influence... all this was part of the cold war period.. get educated moron.

hope-we may have had our own agendas for helping them but no one can dispute that we did in fact help them. Without our help they'd still be fighting the russians. What do they do to thank us? They harbor terrorists who fly airplanes into our buildings. You can't do anything nice to middle easterners (living in the middle east), they expect everything and take you for granted.

About this blog

Afghanistan Crossroads is where CNN's reporting converges -- bringing you a diversity of voices, stunning images and video, global perspectives and the latest news from on the ground in Afghanistan and around the world.